Swedish band Eclipse released their first ever live album, called “Viva La VicTOURia” on 6th November, through Frontiers Music. I had the opportunity to chat with frontman and guitarist Erik Mårtensson via Skype a couple of days before the album was released. We talked about the live album, working on the next Eclipse studio album, dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic, the upcoming W.E.T. album and other projects such as Ammunition and Nordic Union.
You can read the interview below or listen to the Friday NI Rocks Show for 20th November 2020 which in now available on our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-erik-martensson-eclipse-wet-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-20th-nov-2020/
Playlist for the Show
GASOLINE OUTLAWS – Heart & Soul
JOEL HOEKSTRA’S 13 – Hard to Say Goodbye
DURBIN – Kings Before You
HEARTS & HAND GRENADES – Nothing Left
CATS IN BOOTS – Shot Gun Sally
TROUBLE TRIBE – Here Comes Trouble
NO SHAME – You’re So Cool
ECLIPSE – Viva La Victoria (Live)
Interview with Erik Martensson Part 1 (6 min)
ECLIPSE – The Downfall of Eden (Live)
Interview with Erik Martensson Part 2 (5 min)
W.E.T. – Big Boys Don’t Cry
Interview with Erik Martensson Part 3 (4 min)
NORDIC UNION – Because of Us
Interview with Erik Martensson Part 4 (4 min)
ECLIPSE – The Storm (Live)
AMMUNITION – Freedom Finder
SAXON – Strong Arm of the Law
Y & T – Midnight In Tokyo
MAMA’S BOYS – Lettin’ Go
BLACK STONE CHERRY – In Love With The Pain
TRUCKER DIABLO – Other Side of the City
ROB MORATTI – I’m Falling
HELLSMOKE – Devil’s Train
BUTCHER BABIES – Bottom of a Bottle
MSG – Drilled to Kill
SALTY DOG – Cat’s Got Nine
SILENT RAGE – Don’t Touch Me There
KANE ROBERTS – Outlaw
MILLION DOLLAR RELOAD - Travel
NI ROCKS – Hi Erik, thanks for taking some time to talk with us. Eclipse release their live album “Viva La VicTOURia” this Friday through Frontiers Music. We just played the track “Viva La Victoria” from that album. Who takes the credit for the clever play on words with the album title?
ERIK – I would say that the guitar player (Magnus Henriksson) has the credit for it. I don’t know which one exactly came up with the phrase, but he came up with the Viva La something or other and this is where we ended up. But “Viva La VicTOURia” that is his. A play on words. Blame it all on him
NI ROCKS – The band have been around for over 20 years, but this is your first live album, which is quite incredible. Presumably, as the show was being recorded the decision to do a live album was made pre-covid. What had made you decide to release it at this time?
ERIK – At the start, it wasn’t intended to be a live album. The bass player in Eclipse, Victor (Crusner), he works with filming and stuff, and this was recorded in his home town, so he asked a few friends of his who were also into filming if they would film a few songs. And they kept going for the whole show – ‘should we continue?’ – ‘Yeah, ahead’. And we did a multitrack recording of the whole concert. But we didn’t think so much about it at the time; and then when covid struck we started looking at what we had recorded and listened to it. We thought this is really good; this should be released. So it was kind of by accident almost. Everything had come to a halt and we had this great show recorded, so we thought lets release it, there won’t be better timing than now.
NI ROCKS – Why hadn’t there been a live album earlier. Had there been a conscious decision not to do one? Or had it just never come about?
ERIK – When you film it you want to make it look good and you want to have your own gear. People want to do it at festivals and stuff, but the technical problems when you play a festival! You usually don’t sound that good at festivals because you have no time for soundchecks or anything at all. So we wanted to record our own show. But this was not intended, so we probably wouldn't have done this if not by coincidence almost.
NI ROCKS – The tour was obviously in support of the last studio album. Your quoted as saying it’s probably the shortest tour you’ve ever done. How many dates did you actually get to play before the tour was cancelled?
ERIK – We did almost a month in Europe. Nothing in the UK. We played a lot of shows in Spain and Germany; throughout Europe. We did two dates in Sweden, one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg. We did some in Finland and some in Greece. Then everything was cancelled. 2020 was supposed to be the best year for Eclipse ever!
NI ROCKS – The album has been turned into much more than just a live album, with the addition of a load of bonus tracks. Can you tell us what those are and why you decided to add them to this release? Normally that is the kind of material you’d find on a special re-release or deluxe edition of a studio album.
ERIK – Some of the acoustic versions that are on the CD, and also on the vinyl; they were recorded for Japan. It’s kind of sad that Japan always get these bonus tracks, so we decided that because all the rights were coming back from the Japanese labels, lets put these on so as people can hear them and get them. Also, we did a live quarantine gig – like a streaming gig in April – so we decided to put that on the album as well.
NI ROCKS – Am I right in thinking that this will be the first Eclipse album that new bass player Victor Crusner is involved in? I don’t think he was part of the last studio album?
ERIK – No, he wasn’t.
NI ROCKS – So this is his first album with you?
ERIK – Yes, it’s pretty exciting.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from the new album now. Do you want to pick a track and tell us a little about it?
ERIK – From the live album, one of my favourites is probably “The Downfall of Eden”.
NI ROCKS – Yeah, great track. I love that. What was that track about?
ERIK – It works pretty well now. With the election in America the last time with Trump and Hilary Clinton, it was the same as it is now. It’s so polarised, so much hate between different camps, the whole environment thing. It feels like the whole world at the moment is going in wrong direction. It feels like this is not going in the right direction anymore. It feels like every day is getting worse than the day before and I think that is how the lyrics came about. We are in Eden, in our paradise, and we are fucking it up!
NI ROCKS – As well as the live album from Eclipse you also have a new W.E.T. album coming out in January, again through Frontiers Records. The album is called “Retransmission”. I’m presuming that’s not a reference to the current pandemic?
ERIK – No, it’s nothing to do with it. It’s Jeff’s title, he came up with it. He said I think this is the best title for the record. I asked the others what do you think about it and they said sounds great, let’s go for it.(Laughs) So it was Jeff who came up with it.
NI ROCKS – Were there actually plans for another W.E.T. album in process pre-covid or is the album a result of you all effectively being grounded and having more capacity to write and record at the minute?
ERIK – No, this was planned before the pandemic, so it was all scheduled. Jeff was supposed to do his vocals during the Fall, in September or October, but because of the pandemic he had all the time in the world in the summer; so we did it during the summer. Jeff sound great on this record because he hasn’t been touring as much and could stay at home and rest his voice. He sounds great.
NI ROCKS – I’m presuming that you did all the production, mixing etc for the new album is your own studios?
ERIK – Yes, everything was done here.
NI ROCKS – And did Jeff record his vocals and send them through? I presume he didn’t travel over.
ERIK – Yeah, Jeff did all his vocals in America. He has been doing the same thing for all the records I think.
NI ROCKS – Everything is obviously very much up in the air at the moment in regard to touring, but are there any plans for future shows with W.E.T. – sometime in 2021 maybe?
ERIK – No shows planned for W.E.T. at all I’m afraid. A lot of shows for Eclipse are planned though. Everything from 2020 is postponed until 2021. Let’s see if that happens at all. Let’s go for 2025 or something! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – How would you compare working and writing with Jeff and Robert on new material, against working with Magnus, and now Philip and Victor on Eclipse material.
ERIK – I’d say that it is harder to write for Eclipse. Even if W.E.T. is our band and we do it together, it’s less personal because it’s a collaboration between three different projects – everybody has their own baby, and this is no-ones; it’s everyone’s but no-one’s taking like full responsibility for the record. If you know what I mean! In a good way that loosens you up so you can say this is a great song, let’s put it on the record. When you write for Eclipse it’s, oh we can’t do this, we can’t do that! So many do this and don’t do this. We want to do something unique everytime. With W.E.T. we thinks this is cool, let’s do it!
NI ROCKS – You are part of several projects, but Eclipse is the only band that you’re actually the main vocalist. Would you ever think of doing any other projects in which you are the main singer rather than the guitarist?
ERIK – No. Actually, I decided this many years ago! That I don’t want to be one of those singers that sings on all the records (laughs). Jeff is a great singer, but there are several of them where you don’t know where they belong. I want it that, if you want to hear my voice, you listen to Eclipse. It’s like I’m faithful to this marriage. I’ll do backing vocals, but I don’t do many guest appearances or anything. I sing in Eclipse – that’s enough.
NI ROCKS – Has there been a single released from the new W.E.T. album yet? I don’t think I’ve seen one come through?
ERIK – There is one, I think in late November, early December maybe. There is one soon. We did a video for it as well. I’m not sure on the release date, but it is fairly soon.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play that one next. I’m sure I’ll have it. What is it called?
ERIK – I think the first single is called “Big Boys Don’t Cry”
NI ROCKS – We’ll play that next. What was that track about?
ERIK – That’s a good question! You’ve caught me off guard. I can’t even remember the lyrics at the moment. (Laughs). Right now I can’t remember the lyrics. I’ve been sitting in the studio with Victor and Magnus writing songs for five days in a row so I’m pretty toasted! So many lyrics and so many melodies!
NI ROCKS – I wanted to talk briefly about a couple of other projects that you’ve been involved in over the past few years. The first one is Ammunition that featured Wig Wam singer Age Sten Nilson. The band formed in 2013 or 2014 I think and released two albums. How did that project come about?
ERIK – Age, the singer, was is Stockholm to meet with a producer – maybe for a possible Wig Wam album or maybe a solo album, because the band Wig Wam were almost on the verge of breaking up completely. One of the producers he was supposed to meet couldn’t make it to the meeting. He said to a friend of his who said, well you shouldn’t meet him you should meet Erik, he’s the best producer in town. So he called me up and said I’m here in Stockholm with Age Sten Nilson from Wig Wam, do you want to have a meeting with him? Talk about doing a record together – produce his record. I said fine and we met up and it was so much fun. We started working together and Wig Wam broke up, and this started to sound like a completely new band. Instead of doing his solo thing, he turned it into Ammunition, the band. I wasn’t supposed to be the guitar player from the beginning, but I played all the guitars on the demos. So, all the guitars that is on the first record is my demo guitars. I didn’t change a single thing.
NI ROCKS – Wig Wam are now back together again. Will there be another Ammunition album as any stage. Probably not?
ERIK – Not at this stage. Age is doing his solo thing also, and there is WigWam. He’s all over the place. I think his schedule is full. I guess that mine is as well. But who knows, in the future maybe?
NI ROCKS – I spoke to Ronnie Atkins earlier this year when the new Pretty Maids live album was released. You worked with him of course on the two Nordic Union albums. That was another project that Frontier boss Serafino created. What has it been like working with Ronnie?
ERIK – It was great. Ronnie is such a great person to work with. He’s been around for many years in this business and a lot of people who have been working on the same job for a long time; they get kind of lazy and they say ‘ahh, it’s good enough”. They don’t care. But Ronnie is so passionate about music. He always gives 110% in the studio; everything is wonderful, it’s super serious and he’s also a super nice guy. It’s super nice to hang out with him. I really like Ronnie and I’m devastated about his fight with cancer and it’s not looking good to be honest.
NI ROCKS – Unfortunately, the news doesn’t seem good about his cancer, but he seems determined to keep working for as long and as hard as he can.
ERIK – Yeah, what else can he do. He doesn’t know; he can get his death sentence in ten days, or ten months or six years. No-one knows.
NI ROCKS – Would there be plans for another Nordic Union album at any time?
ERIK – We have talked about it and let’s see what happens. It’s really strange, but we are fighting time really. It kind of depends on what happens with him.
NI ROCKS – If you don’t mind, we’ll play a track from the latest Nordic Union album “Second Coming” now. Can you pick a track and tell us something about it?
ERIK – “Because of Us”. It’s one of my favourite songs. At the beginning, my kids are singing the children’s voices. The kids were out playing in the garden and I said come in and sing this – “because of us” – and they started singing it.
NI ROCKS – You’re a producer as well as musician of course. What other projects have you been working on recently?
ERIK – I’ve been mixing a lot of records. The new Jaded Heart record. I’ve mixed a new record with Therion – like an opera, orchestral metal album – which was a massive project, and it’s a really good album. And the new W.E.T. of course; and we’ve started working on new Eclipse material as well.
NI ROCKS – The Swedish approach to dealing with the covid pandemic has of course been a little different from that of most European nations. How have you been dealing with things on a personal and professional level?
ERIK – Professionally, well I’m home all the time, although I’m in the studio all the time. No more touring and no more travelling. I live in the countryside; I live on an island in a lake and there’s 1600 people living here. If you look around here nothing has changed. We have no lockdowns; there’s not much to do where I live. There are no restaurants or bars or anything, so where I live it is business as usual. In Stockholm, there are regulations – you shouldn’t do this and you shouldn’t do that. We don’t have lockdown – we have strong recommendations from the authorities. In ten years when everybody has been doing research about how this should have been done, we’ll probably know what we should have done, but at the moment we are in the eye of the storm and there’s not much to do.
NI ROCKS – Getting back to Eclipse. You mentioned there that you were writing. The last studio album was only released last October – so just over a year ago. Has the current situation brought forward plans then for the next studio album? You’re not touring, so has the change in circumstances meant that it is going to be done earlier?
ERIK – Yeah, the new Eclipse album should have been released, we’d planned to do the new album next spring but we decided to postpone it to the autumn instead, because there is no way that we’re going to make a tour in the spring next year. On going on tour is actually really fun, especially when you have a new record. It’s so much fun and it’s pretty sad we can’t do it at the moment. I’m really sad that the whole “Paradigm” / “Viva La Victoria” tour ended so abruptly. Let’s hope the next tour will be even better.
NI ROCKS – You are in the process of writing though, even though it’s not going to be released until later in the year?
ERIK – I think two thirds is already written. We’re on a roll (laughs). It’ll be a good album, a really good album.
NI ROCKS – In terms of writing, do you have a standard song writing process or do different tracks come about in different ways?
ERIK – yeah, in different ways, but usually we sit down and say let’s write a song. We sit down and we work for hours and hours, and days and days. Sometimes we write great songs and sometimes you sit for four or five days and you come up with just decent ideas. You never know. It’s usually hard work. A lot of times I do these ideas by myself; I’ll sit by myself with the guitar in studio, doing some programming with the drums and come up with brain storming ideas.
NI ROCKS – To bring into the others?
ERIK – Yeah, I’ll bring it to the others and say what do you think of this? What should we do better.
NI ROCKS – We’ll finish by playing another track from the new live album. Do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
ERIK – “Viva La Victoria” is one of the greats, but I think “The Storm” – there’s a really good version on this one. “The Storm” from the album “Armageddonize” really came out well on this record.
NI ROCKS – Thanks for taking the time to talk to me and good luck with the new album.